By a unanimous vote of the members of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC), PRO TV Chisinau channel was warned publicly for not respecting the conditions for protecting a child victim of sexual abuse. The request to penalize the channel was made by the Press Council of Moldova, IPN reports.

According to a communiqué from the Press Council, they established that the TV channel violated the Journalist’s Deontological Code when broadcasting a report about the alleged raping of a nine-year-old boy from Soldanesti district. Under the Code, the journalists cannot reveal the identity of the victims of sexual abuse and minors involved in events that have a negative connotation.

In the decision adopted by the Press Council, it is said that by interviewing a child who was supposedly the victim of sexual abuse committed by another minor and asking him to relate what happened, the journalist of PRO TV Chisinau put the victim in the situation of experiencing again that incident that affected him physically and psychologically. Even if the channel blurred the image of the child victim, sufficient information for identifying him was presented in the report, including the name and the settlement where the rape took place. The child’s relatives were also interviewed without protecting their identity. Measures weren’t taken to protect the minor suspected of committing the sexual abuse.

As the TV channel committed similar violations earlier, the Press Council asked the Broadcasting Coordination Council, as the legal authority regulating broadcasting, to examine the report to see if it meets the provisions of the Broadcasting Code and to impose the required penalties if necessary.

The BCC established that PRO TV Chisinau indeed violated the Broadcasting Code and the Council’s decision concerning the respect for the rights and protection of children in TV programs as well as the Broadcasters’ Code of Conduct.

The Press Council reminds that the journalistic activities that concern the children must take into account their vulnerable situation, while the journalists and the mass media organizations must act responsibly.